SMUTS. 87 



with flour, is injurious ia proportion to its extent, 

 whilst at the same time we can scarcely conceive an 

 intelHgent miUer grinding up a sample containing 

 any large proportion of " bunted " grains in igno- 

 rance of the fact. 



If we break open a grain of wheat infested with 

 the "stinking rust" or "bunt," and then place 

 some of the powder in a drop of water on a glass 

 slide, and submit this to the microscope, first using 

 the half-inch power, then the quarter, or fifth, and 

 finally an eighth or tenth, we shall find that this 

 minute dust consists of myriads of globose brown 

 bodies termed spores, which possess certain repro- 

 ductive functions. These spores will be found 

 mixed with a number of delicate branched threads, 

 to which they are attached by a short stalk or 

 pedicel, visible with the higher powers (fig. 86). 

 The surface of the spores you wiU also observe to 

 be beautifully reticulated. These features just 

 described as visible in the " bunt " are the charac- 

 teristics of the genus to which it belongs {Tilletia), 

 and of which it is the only British species. An 

 allied species infests the Sorghum or durra, a grain 

 but httle cultivated in Europe, but found exten- 

 sively in Africa and Asia, and also apparently found 

 on the Bajra of India. 



The interesting experiments of the Eev. M. J. 

 Berkeley on the germination of "bunt" spores 

 have been already aUuded to. They were under- 

 taken shortly after the outbreak of the potato 



